Saudi Arabia sets tough penalties for disclosing others’ personal data

Cairo: Saudi prosecution authorities have warned against disclosing or publishing personal data belonging to other persons, saying offenders would face jailing and heavy fines.

Such sensitive data refer to the person’s ethnic, tribal, religious and ideological backgrounds as well as criminal, security or biometric, credit, health, genetic data, Saudi news portal Sabq reported.

Also banned is the disclosure of personal data that may indicate the person is of unknown patronage.

Offenders could face fines of up to SR3 million or a maximum of two years in prison if the intention is to cause harm to the data holder or make personal gains by the offender.

A system for protecting personal data is due to go into effect in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.